Seltzer, the fizzy drink that’s been called “Jewish champagne,” has played an important role in the history of Jewish New York ever since Eastern European Jews “began making, delivering and selling it in the early 1900s, largely on the Lower East Side,” as the New York Times wrote in 2023.
On Sunday, that history is being celebrated with the first-ever Brooklyn SeltzerFest, organized by the city’s (and, perhaps, the world’s) only museum dedicated entirely to the carbonated water.
Running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 16 at Brooklyn’s Industry City, the festival will celebrate “everything related to (non-alcoholic) seltzer water and related effervescent topics,” according to the museum’s website.
“What that means,” according to Barry Joseph, the museum’s co-curator and author of the book “Seltzertopia,” “is exploring seltzer as a beverage, seltzer as a cultural practice that reinforces people’s identity, seltzer as a muse for artists and so, so much more.”
SeltzerFest is slated to include an array of vendors offering samples of their own seltzer; a panel discussion on the history and future of fizzy drinks in Jewish culture, and a Yiddish seltzer-themed klezmer performance. For a second year, the Egg Cream Invitational will invite makers of the chocolate syrup, milk and seltzer concoction for a competition emceed by Israeli chef Ari Miller and judged by a panel that includes Jewish director and actor Benny Safdie (“Uncut Gems,” “Oppenheimer”).
Meanwhile, stands set up by institutions like the Museum at Eldridge Street and the Museum of Jewish Heritage will encourage attendees to learn about the history of seltzer in NYC, while other booths will feature seltzer-themed art-making and carnival games.
“We want to have something for everyone,” said Alex Gomberg, who together with Joseph curates the museum and is organizing the SeltzerFest.
Gomberg comes by his passion for seltzer naturally. A fourth-generation “seltzer boy,” he runs Brooklyn Seltzer Boys, New York City’s last remaining seltzer works, which was founded by Gomberg’s great-grandfather in 1953 as the Gomberg Seltzer Works, Inc. Brooklyn Seltzer Boy’s process — captured partly in a New York Jewish Week video — includes a filtration system that blocks out microcrustaceans in the city’s tap water, making it kosher, and ends with the delivery of seltzer in old-fashioned glass siphon bottles.
In 2023, Gomberg and Joseph combined forces to found the non-profit Brooklyn Seltzer Museum — housed inside the factory in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, not far from JFK Airport. The idea, Gomberg said, “was to bring people into our factory, which is one of only three left in the country that do what we do.”
Last year, with the museum in its infancy, the pair decided they needed a flagship event to “let people know that we exist,” Joseph said. Then they realized that March 15 was National Egg Cream Day. “And we said OK, that’s bashert,” Joseph said, using the Yiddish word for destiny.
A customer is handed an egg cream at the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. (Ben Helmer)
The museum hosted the inaugural National Egg Cream Invitational on that day, in which seven restaurants competed in front of about 75 attendees to see who could make the best egg cream. The Franklin Fountain, a Philadelphia ice cream parlor and soda fountain, took home the “Golden Siphon” trophy.
The event was a success — so much so, in fact, that it sold out within two hours.
“We knew we had to do something bigger and better in 2025,” Joseph said. In September 2024, when they were invited to serve egg creams alongside bagel vendors at the New York BagelFest at Citi Field, they found a model for a new, improved SeltzerFest.
Six months later and with a large space secured at Industry City, the pair have sold more than 400 SeltzerFest tickets, just under a week out from the event.
“This is a lot of people coming together in one shot,” Gomberg said. “And it makes my family so happy because we kept this business for so long — four generations now — and we want to see it keep going, and we’re just so thrilled that there’s so much interest in seltzer.”
While Safdie’s involvement has garnered lots of attention for the event, Joseph said he’s particularly excited about an under-the-radar item on the schedule: the presentation of the “Spirit of Eli” award — named after the late Eli Miller, whom the New York Times called the “Sultan of Seltzer” when he died in 2020 at age 86 — to Walter Backerman, a third-generation seltzer salesman who’s something of a legend.
“I love Walter,” Joseph said. “He is a living repository of the entire history of seltzer in New York.”
For now, Gomberg and Joseph are nailing down the logistics and ensuring everything’s set for Sunday.
“The sky is the limit,” Gomberg said. “The bigger it can get, the more vendors we can have, the more seltzer companies we can have, the more competitions we can have.”
He added, “I hope this is an event we can do every single year.”
The Brooklyn SeltzerFest will take place on Sunday, March 16 at at Five Two A Event Space in Industry City (33 35th Street, Brooklyn) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For tickets, $36, and additional info, click here.
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